Wait wait wait wait wait. *Blinks in confusion.* You're saying that thing was written? I find that a little hard to believe.

Well, it was written by somebody. Stories (even really, really bad ones) don't spring up on their own. (Which is unfortunate, as I and some of our other writers can attest. :[ )

...of course, we don't know what they were doing when they wrote it ("Hey, boss, this stuff is terrible! It demeans what little credibility El Hazard had left after the last twelve episodes and is needlessly pandering!" "*puff* Mmm, that's some powerful stuff. ...were you saying something, rookie?" "*sigh* Lame humor and naked anime chicks it is. Hey, it's worked before...").

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"Die... a glorious death. Fight on and fly on, to the last drop of blood and fuel... to the last beat of the heart and the last kick of the motor... a death for a knight, a toast for his fellows, friend and foe."

Everyone knows Episode 13 of Alternative World's script was constructed by writing down the results of a blindfolded intern randomly pointing out words from a phone book.

I just figured the Continuity Checker collapsed from overwork. So the director, having just come back from Comike with a stack of El-Hazard doujinshi (strictly for "reference purposes" of course), pulled out a story at random and......

Again I will take this opportunity to question -- how did three girls get molested individually by only two others?

Hey now, this is Alielle and Fatora we're talking about here. Are you doubting their abilities?

Incidentally, at the weekend our anime club screened El-Hazard OAV1, OAV2 and Alternative World across two days. And while it was generally agreed that Alternative World was weaker, nobody hated it. It seems to me that the more you love El-Hazard, the more fault you'll find with its sequels... because, I suppose, it hurts to see something you love decline to such an extent. But going on the views of others, I'd have to argue that Alternative World isn't terrible- it's just not up to the standard. And let's not forget that Alternative World gave us some good things, such as:

Makoto making actual progress with the Eye of GodSome fantastic Jinnai momentsMore Fatora

Easily agreeable. The Jinnai/Shayla dynamics were awesome. Definitely a memory. Fatora and Jinnai towards the end for a moment was kind of fun too.

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Gilda (yum)

Hmm. I remember my sister saying she at least was all angsty and depressed to past love like Gilda, so she understood her or something to that extent. :P

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Qawoor

Wooooor. Woooooooooor. Woooooeeeee....

They still pronounce it "wool" in the English dub. But since they failed to update it on the packaging, everyone defaults to the Engrish spelling. Same with "Arjah". They say "Allujah" in English, and to back up my spelling, there's a city in the middle east that has appeared a few times on the news "Fallujah", pronounced just like that -- "Fah Loo Jah". :P

As for the character herself... she still needs work. She's a bit too plain and that potential Makoto love interest suspected by the other girls, though she never really expressed it, needs to have water dumped on it immediately.

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Parnasse (what? I liked him)

There's another one. "Parn-Ass". Going again by English dubbing, it needs an "o" in there someplace. ;p

I liked him too, though. He's like ... well, Alielle, but he seems to have a bit more brain. Not that I'm putting Alielle down, I'm just saying it's different and interesting.

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As a fanfic writer, I simply regarded the plot holes of Alternative World as a challenge. Ignoring it is the coward's way out... ^_~

Eh, I guess it's a matter of taste. I'm not a huge anime fan (I've only watched through about two dozen series, out of the hundreds out there), but The Alternative World was one of the worst I can remember seeing... I personally rank it lower than Tenchi in Tokyo/Shin Tenchi Muyo (and yes, in my opinion, it is that bad).

If TAW had, say; actual plot consistency, better artwork (*shudders*), fewer ridiculous elements (Jinnai gaining 200 pounds in less than a week? Right...)... and even fewer ridiculous plot devices, then maybe I could rate it mediocre. Kidding. But TAW has so many strikes against it I just can't like it. The fact it follows TMW, which is [arguably, but not by me :]] one of the best anime series of all time, makes it look even worse.

Wanderers I can at least respect as a sort of internal parody; it wasn't as good, but it was funny in places, and they did expand on the characters and sidestories (the big advantage long-running TV series have over numbered OAVs).

And regarding fan fiction... heh, yeah; some good stories can make up for a myriad of wrongs. *chuckles* It's really not the same, though (even though there are some very talented writers out there... I've read a bunch of Mr. What's stuff on FFN; and much of it's amazing).

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"Die... a glorious death. Fight on and fly on, to the last drop of blood and fuel... to the last beat of the heart and the last kick of the motor... a death for a knight, a toast for his fellows, friend and foe."

Actually, I thought the second half of "Tenchi in Tokyo" was actually...somewhat decent, at least compared to what came before. Still, as for TAW, it was very uneven in terms of quality (in my opinion), but it did have two great moments that stand out in my mind. The first is when Fatora 'meets' Parnasse. That scene was delightfully ironic, and Rune's reaction was priceless. The second is Arjah (or however one spells his name) tempting Makoto. I found that scene to be surprisingly emotional and riveting.

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As a fanfic writer, I simply regarded the plot holes of Alternative World as a challenge. Ignoring it is the coward's way out... ^_~

And TAW does provide some additional story and content to work with, so it does have its uses.

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Easily agreeable. The Jinnai/Shayla dynamics were awesome.

Hm...perhaps in the beginning, although Shayla's willingness to fry Jinnai repeatedly despite the dangers of their situation irritated me slightly. Their scenes together are one of the things I wish TAW had developed a bit more.

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(Jinnai gaining 200 pounds in less than a week? Right...)...

Personally, I rationalize _that_ entire plot thread by believing that the food was drugged.

I personally rank it lower than Tenchi in Tokyo/Shin Tenchi Muyo (and yes, in my opinion, it is that bad).

I think The Alt World is a slightly below average series; the critical darling Excel Saga was way over-rated, wildly uneven and a poor series overall; and the often-hated Tenchi In Tokyo was quite good. So, who wants to shoot me first?

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I've read a bunch of Mr. What's stuff on FFN; and much of it's amazing.

Nah, wouldn't shoot you or anything. *chuckles* I agree about Excel Saga, actually-- I've seen about half of it (scattered episodes), and the only parts I liked were with Nabeshin (who was just so bizarre he's hard not to like). Beyond that... some people like that sort of insanity/inanity, but it's not my cup of tea.

I can knife you in the ribs or something for liking Shin Tenchi Muyo!, though, if you're still interested. :]

(Seriously; I'm glad to hear you're thinking about picking the pen as it were back up. I used to write a fair bit-- Final Fantasy Tactics was the biggest project; I finished a 20-chapter work just over 100K words for the first "chapter" of the game, and plenty of online stuff since then... but it's not something I've been able to keep up with, for various reasons; and I'm sure you can relate to that, being that much older than I am. *chuckles* It's a shame when people aren't able to put their talents to good use, for whatever reason; and I'm looking forward to more (a wee bit lighter on the angst, though; if you handle requests-- life is depressing enough as it is ).

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"Die... a glorious death. Fight on and fly on, to the last drop of blood and fuel... to the last beat of the heart and the last kick of the motor... a death for a knight, a toast for his fellows, friend and foe."

Hmm. I remember my sister saying she at least was all angsty and depressed to past love like Gilda, so she understood her or something to that extent. :P

Yes, I like Gilda. I respect her. She is bitter, bitter and alone... like me. And she doesn't take crap from anyone... except for the man that wronged her so very badly... DAMN YOU DAHL! If you weren't so eccentric I'd hate yoooooooou!

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There's another one. "Parn-Ass". Going again by English dubbing, it needs an "o" in there someplace. ;p

Heh yes Parn is an ass... oh wait... we aren't talking about Record of Lodoss War...

I like Parnasse ^^ He's cool! (if you spell it with an "e" it's not so bad) ^^;

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Little Rock lights the way... or maybe he's just leading us to a firey death. Meh, either way...

Heh yes Parn is an ass... oh wait... we aren't talking about Record of Lodoss War...

*Chuckles* My sister and I enjoyed rooting out all kinds of homosexual subtexts in the relationship between Parn and King Kasshu. We just about fell out of our chairs laughing when, during Parn's sword training, Kasshu bellowed, "THRUST WITH THE HIPS!!!"

Erm, but yeah, Alternative World. I don't think there's much I can add that hasn't already been said. I've found that I tend to be a little more sympathetic to Qawool's character than some fans, but certainly admit that she could stand some improvement. The girl needs a little more backbone - it's frankly astonishing that someone with so little self-confidence managed to "graduate at the top of her class from the seminary". *Sigh* I guess they just wanted to create another vastly powerful character that, for some reason, requires Makoto to protect and nurture her...

I think The Alt World is a slightly below average series; the critical darling Excel Saga was way over-rated, wildly uneven and a poor series overall; and the often-hated Tenchi In Tokyo was quite good.

I can understand your views on TAW and Excel Saga, but TiT? While I will agree that the show isn't a total loss and that the second half is actually somewhat decent with a share of good moments, I hesitate to call that series 'quite good'. However, it would probably be quite refreshing to hear somebody say something positive about it so...care to explain your reasoning?

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So, who wants to shoot me first?

Oh, I think shooting you can wait until the round robin is finally finished...in other words, you should be safe for a _very_ long time.

some people like that sort of insanity/inanity, but it's not my cup of tea.

I love inanity, as everyone knows by now. But I (very generally) don't like dark comedies with unlikeable characters, and ES was too close to something like that, for me.

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It's a shame when people aren't able to put their talents to good use, for whatever reason;

I have a Friday night off at my apartment, and I feel the need to vent.

Earlier today, I was working on a serial fan-fiction chapter, saved as a text file on a floppy disk. I had a backup copy on the home computer hard drive.

So I added a few hundred words to the floppy disk copy, then tried to copy it to the hard drive. Windows XP deleted the backup hard drive copy, then failed to read the floppy disk copy. Can't undelete the hard drive copy. Can't recover the floppy disk copy. So, I just lost about 1200 words forever.

I should be able to rewrite it yet tonight. But if I didn't have such a large backlog of rough ideas in my head, I'd just quit for a few more months. Arrgh.

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(a wee bit lighter on the angst, though; if you handle requests-- life is depressing enough as it is ).

Well, you might want to sit out the rest of my current EH serial, or take it in small doses. I have three updates left on that thing, and the next two updates are dark and darker. I'm still not sure why I write things like that, myself, but that's how it's coming out.

FWIW, my next El-Hazard serial will be a very silly Afura-Shayla-Kauru road trip comedy. (At one point, Afura and Shayla are abducted by aliens.) There should be plenty of gratuitous fan service too.

And I need to try to knock out a few more short and silly stories, pretty soon. If nothing else, I asked for permission from Dooky to use one of his original characters, something like a year and a half ago, and I still need to write that idea out.

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I like Parnasse ^^ He's cool!

I love talking about long-term plans that might never come together. My fourth or fifth El-Hazard serial (I haven't decided which one to do first) will star Parnasse. That's right, a novel-length fan fiction starring Parnasse Relryle. I obviously need professional help.